Thursday, 17 April 2008

Beer Geek's Breakfast

Well, this beer geek's breakfast was judging the Sainsbury's Beer Competition yesterday and the final 15 were a jolly impressive round-up of good to great beers - full list below.

My personal favourite of the bunch was Holden's Golden Glow - do you know why? Because it is a just a really good, easy drinking, well balanced beer - and you just don't get enough of those these days.

It is a British ale, just 4.4%, and it's made with Maris Otter and Fuggles - and all those simple things somehow combined to make beery nectar of the highest order.

What really struck me about this beer was it did everything just right - the mouthfeel was silky without being sickly, the biscuit of the malt wasn't too sweet and the hops were just bitter enough to make me want to take another sip, and another, and another!

So well done Holden's - for me you were head and shoulders above everyone else in the craft of balanced brewing.

I also had a good chat with the beer buyer - and Sainsbury's seems pretty committed to stocking good beer and supporting the brewers who make it, which is nice to see.

I'm not advocating abandoning local beer purveyors if you use them, but if you are going to shop in a supermarket for your beer then choose one that gives brewers a fair deal.

Anyway, on to the reason for the title of this post. Having finished in Holborn I had to head to Borough to do some work on my new joint venture http://www.lovebeeratborough.ning.com/ and I got caught, as so often happens, having a couple in the Rake.

Whereupon I met Phil Lowry from Cave Direct , who may need to redeem himself after saying something along the lines of 'you look nothing like your facebook picture' and then following it up later with the comment 'it's a sexy picture'!!!! My fragile ego has naturally been shattered by these comments...

Anyway, he's currently still, just about, making the Christmas card list because he introduced me to the Beer Geek's Breakfast, a coffee stout from Mikkeller.

These former home-brew enthusiasts were voted fifth best Danish brewer in 2006 and on the strength of this beer I can see why.

And I love their unashamed assertion that you should actually drink this to start the day: "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, many say, and if you are a beer geek there is no better way to start the day than with a powerful, complex morning stout. The unique mix of oats and coffee gives this beer large body and power, while the coffee, at the same time, creates a nice balance."

5 comments:

"Full list below" - you may have gotten a little sidetracked by the Mikkeler ;-)

I wonder how much of your average supermarkets' bottled ales are from local or small brewers. They may list a lot of bottles, but I get the feeling the store managers will only stock stuff which moves. My local Tesco (small) is dominated by GK 'brands' and S&N, while a bigger Sainsbury's has much more space but not much more imagination.

We need somebody in the supermarket trade with the cojones of Safeway when Glenn Payne was buying for 'em...

Ahh, well actually I hit publish before they sent me the final list and they still haven't so I'm just waiting to upload - never mind it makes people comment!

I completely agree with your praise of Mr Payne, which is why I've gone into business with him - www.lovebeeratborough.ning.com for details - but I also have to take the beer buyer's word that he is committed to making the beer category better.

If he fails to deliver then I shall rain down wrath - but in the meantime I think the competition was a great step forward and, for me, it's excellent that they not only guaranteed the price per unit before people won - they also increased it when the ruinous Budget was announced.

To me that's a good sign of better things to come from Sainsbury's - fingers crossed.

Me again. This competition will be decided based on sales of the final 15 in 300 Sainsbury's. That sounds stilted (where are the 300? Have Sainsbury's said?), but what happens then? Once the winners are listed, will all Sainsbury's have to take them?

I wonder if this is the best way to support craft or micro-brewing in the UK?

About Me

Award-winning beer writer and author of Let Me Tell You About Beer Melissa Cole is living the dream. Not only does she write extensively about the world's favourite drink, she also works with chefs to create beer and food extravaganzas in venues as diverse as Michelin-starred restaurants to local pubs, and is invited to judge at beer competitions from London to Brussels and Amsterdam to America.
Her reputation for having a fine palate and fun approach to all things brewed, also translates to actually making beer, and some of her collaborative beers have gone on to become huge successes for the breweries Melissa made them with, never profiting herself.
Melissa is also a Certified Cicerone & was also identified as one of the Most Powerful Women in the Drinks Industry by Channel4 Food and won the acclaim of her industry peers when named Educator of the Year by Imbibe magazine in 2013.